Active volcano may save Louisiana

Bill EllzeyColumnist

Wednesday

Aug 20, 2008 at 3:00 PM

We’re unlikely to ever have one, but I’ve decided that Louisiana needs a good volcano. Not an explosive disaster like Mount St. Helens, but one which forever oozes molten lava from beneath the earth’s surface, like Hawaii’s Kilauea,

We visited “the world’s most-active volcano” this week, driving to the rim of its major caldera and looking in. A lot of steam and a broad crust of black lava rock.

Not much glowing fresh lava bubbles out from this point now-a-days, but other vents between the peak and the sea have been leaking semi-liquid rock since 1983, when this eruption began.

According to one brochure, “An estimated 1,000 gallons of molten lava flow out of active vents every second. Nearly two billion cubic yards of lava rock have come from this eruption.”

There is no indication how thick this road would be, but Louisiana could surely use huge quantities of such rock in stabilizing our coast and building highways.

I understand that this part of the Pacific Ocean was once vacant, and that all the Hawaiian islands are just piles of volcanic rock.

Fabric shortage? Through careful observation, I’ve determined that cloth, and clothing in general, is in short supply here. Luckily the weather cooperates because many locals and visitors alike seem to have trouble finding enough clothing to wear out in public, to the beach, for example.

It’s a serious problem; nearly everyone hangs out, literally, at Hawaii’s hundreds of beaches. I’m giving it as much personal attention as I can spare from my other research into lava, and poi.

Dulac dancing: Count on Al Voisin to track you down, wherever you go. “Hi Bill,” he wrote in an e-mail that reached me in Kona, Hawaii, “if you are still in Hawaii when you get this, bring some of them folks back with you to the Fais’ do-do.

“The next Fais’ do-do will be on the 23rd of this month at the KC home on Shrimpers Row just below Bobtown. The price to get in is still one dollor and the meal five dollors. There is a 50/50 and door prizes.

“The band ... Leroy Chiasson and the Cajun Ramblers. A meal of red beans with sausage and the trimings will be served.”

We’re telling Hawaiians how to find the monthly Bayou Grand Caillou dinner and dance, and we’ll pay admission for all of those who make it from Hawaii.

Home again? With any luck, we will be back in Terrebonne in time to be at the Fais do do. We may even have time to recover from travel fatigue.

Fresh history? Recent Photos and Memories articles have been based on old newspapers on microfilm; because interviews while traveling would have been next to impossible.

If you have old pictures and stories that might be of interest, get in touch with me Monday so we can talk about how what you’ve got.